On October 11, 2022, Jordi Espin Vallbona, ESC’s Strategic Relations Manager, took part in an event organised by the International Road Transport Union (IRU) at the European Parliament. He delivered a speech about the Charter “Improving the treatment of drivers at collection and delivery sites”.

Please, see a full summary of the speech below.

We shippers are a global stakeholder, therefore a global partner to the IRU through the Global Shippers’ Alliance. What we popularly call logistics has a more technical approach also known as supply chain. It is vital that it works efficiently, and in order to do that, we need trust between logistics partners, so that the supply chain really becomes a trust chain to make the cargo flow. Our goal is that drivers are renamed as considered trust chain agents. In addition to this, we cannot consider that drivers are only related to land transport, and we need to broaden the scope to look for cooperation agents. Charter document dissemination is our next step by broadening the scope and to establish additional agents who promote the universal language code of respect to drivers. Ports are a key stakeholder to be included in the charter movement, and we will create an annual event to expand the charter philosophy where we will give recognition to the best operational cases so that they have a “call effect” in the worldwide logistics. This first event will take place in the Port of Algeciras in the first half of 2023, being Algeciras a landmark and a point of encounter of drivers and cargo flows, and also by being one of the most important ports in Europe.

Our plan also includes a 2nd phase of the charter document, to be relaunched by creating a branding to be identified by drivers and shippers who have adhered to this universal behaviour code. We will also create a checklist compliance sheet which will be able to be downloaded together with the charter document so that anyone who has signed up for the charter will be able to check if they are charter compliant.

We are also in the final steps of creating the Responsible Shipper Certification in Spain. A certification created by and for shippers in order to become the drivers’ shipper of choice. This certification does not go about emissions, and it doesn’t overlap with any other existing certification, it goes about ethics in the supply chain and how drivers are treated at loading & offloading sites. First shippers will be certified in early 2023, and our plan is to expand it gradually to other countries.